Electronic images—in particular images that result from scanning operations—often require some degree of editing to become usable. Brightness and contrast are two image characteristics that frequently require editing. A brightness adjustment typically involves adding or subtracting a value to all image values, the added or subtracted value being determined by the brightness setting. This has the effect of creating distortion in the image lowlights or highlights, depending on the displacement of the brightness setting. Similarly, a contrast adjustment typically increases or decreases the variation between image values over some range of image values. This also has the effect of creating distortion throughout parts of the image.
Complex editing programs exist that allow users greater control over brightness and/or contrast adjustment, but such editing programs require much greater user skill and are time consuming to work with. Hence, they are not suitable for production environments, which require the balancing of user control with production efficiency. Improved systems and methods are, therefore, needed.